


I'll Teach You

by EnvelopesYou



Category: Game Grumps, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Pokemon AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-05 19:15:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5387231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnvelopesYou/pseuds/EnvelopesYou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you are given the task of kindly visiting the supposed greatest pokemon sanctuary in the world to drop off a pokemon, you fight through the guilt and fool yourself into thinking it will be an easy drop off. Danny appears to show you just how many ways you can be wrong. And oh how many of those there are.<br/>[Danny x Reader pokemon AU for funsies!]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_You're not abandoning it._  
You repeated these four words over and over and over again to yourself. Even when you knew that no matter how many times you said them aloud or in your head, it wouldn't alleviate your guilt. The woods outside Cherrygrove happened to be terribly, conveniently close to you. The only reason you were going there- because the sanctuary there was touted as one of the best in the region. Maybe even the whole world. It was expansive and beautiful. With lots of people that really knew how to take care of pokemon. Understood all their varied needs. Would be able to nurse their weary and often glum souls back to a happy place. People who knew what they were doing- not that you weren't one of them. And maybe one day you'd open a sanctuary of your own, or go there to help. But today was not that day.

Nor were any of the coming days. Today you just had a task. To look at the sanctuary and drop off the litwick stuck almost permanently to your arms. As if its candle wax had actually melted and super bonded to your clothes somehow.  
_You're not abandoning it._  
  
And you weren't. Honestly. It was going to go live at the Iris Gardens sanctuary. The best place for it. It would be looked after. Cared for. Better than you could do. At least that's what everyone who had told you about the place seemed to think. You thought it a little odd that you hadn't actually ever heard of the place before last week- and that almost everyone else had. You'd studied too hard not to know things like this. Yet there you were, fresh out of a thicket of tall grass and standing right at its gates. They'd been right. It was rather beautiful.

The thought lasted for all of five seconds before honey-eyed glaze left and cold reality set in. The sign was worn, the building at the back seemed half demolished. And all the pokemon hanging around in the field up front were fighting. Some screaming at each other. Some actually going toe-to-toe. This. _This_ was the so called heavenly sanctuary where all good pokemon were put to heal? There was no way. Absolutely no way, right? Litwick shied away in your arms. She knew you'd been taking her to go to some new home. _Some new home_ this was turning out to be. The lock on the gate was rusted, and no amount of shoving or kicking seemed to get it to budge. Not that it really mattered. The fence wasn't that high.

So right before a rather bulky looking sandslash and clearly very angry rapidash ran to do battle you cried at the top of your lungs and hopped the fence. "Stop!" A new voice seemed to be just what they needed. Their attention turned to you, angry eyes, too. What on earth was the matter with them? And where were all these magical promised caretakers you'd heard so much about? Had the place been abandoned?

You approached slowly. So very carefully slow. You took stock of rapidash first, not that a sandslash couldn't tear you apart in an instance, but the horses- and this one a female, at that- ....and a mother, too. You could see her foal cowering behind her leg the closer you neared. Clearly this was a misunderstanding. "Hey it's alright... look.." You held out your hand, keeping your tone gentle and low. With your other you set litwick to your shoulder and then eased the opposite up so you could get your backpack off. Kneeling to her, you opened it up, still slow, and rummaged through until you produced a handful of passho berries. "Here, are you hungry?" At a sanctuary like this, no doubt all these pokemon were troubled in some form or fashion. Maybe some prone to outbursts. But you didn't sense some malevolent force of hate from any of these ones. No ill will. Just... strained tempers.

The ponyta shakily edged out from behind her mother, rapidash watching on with a warning glare in your direction. You made sure to stay stock still as the baby fed from your hand, smiling and murmuring something low and encouraging. Once it finished, you took another handful, standing and coming over to the mother.  
  
" _Sleh..._ " The little squeaky voice behind you didn't surprise you. For as big as the sandslash was, it seemed to be a silly gentle giant. Not uncommon for them.

You smiled back at him. "I have more than enough for you, too. Just give me one second." When its ears perked up you took that as a sign of agreement and approached rapidash with your palm full of food still upturned. She stayed right where she was, waiting for your approach, and when you came close enough she sniffed the food only once before starting to eat. "That's a good girl. See? No need for all this ruckus." With your free hand you reached up to pet her neck-

At least you tried before finally a human voice interrupted this display. "Don't touch her!" Thankfully his outburst didn't startle any of the pokemon who had just been _actively warring_ with one another. Something you thanked him for with quite a dry look. He looked absolutely haggard. Frazzled, too. A big mane of wild brown curly hair, more-than five o'clock shadow, and tired similarly colored eyes. Tall. Lean. Quite lanky. Legs like the little ponyta now galloping around.

In a display of defiance, to both him and his terribly run sanctuary, you put your hand right on rapidash's neck. "They don't burn when they trust you." Something so elementary you could hardly believe he didn't know it. He _did_ run this place, after all. Didn't he? You'd just fed her baby first and then her. That's as good as most things got. Especially in a place that apparently was not run very well.

"Oh." His shoulders dropped as he came to a stop nearby. "I knew that." Sure he did. _Sure he did._ "My name's Danny." He smiled, offering a little wave. "And uh- thanks for breaking that up." He turned to sandslash who still seemed to be waiting very patiently for its turn, and pulled some feed out of his pocket- mushy looking stuff. Definitely not high quality, and offered it to him. The shrew just turned his nose up. "Aw come on. You don't like it?"

" _Slesh._ " In pure dry defiance, something that got a little laugh out of you- and seemed to light up those blue eyes of his. A charmer, no doubt.

You patted rapidash's side one more time before turning away and going back to your bag to pick through again. This time you brought up some bluk berries and came over to him, offering them out to him. "Here. They're tasty but they'll turn your mouth black!" Giggling softly, something that seemed to cheer his spirits up.

He raised one of those long dangerous claws and carefully skewered the lot out of your hand and then dropped them into his mouth. " _Saandsleh!_ " In obvious full approval.

"You go be good now." Giving him a small scratch on the head. All the permission he needed to amble off happily. Wiping your hands clean you turned to Danny, look darkening. "Do you run this place?" Because if he did, and you assumed he must, you had a few very hard words for him.

His hand went up through his hair. "Uh... sort of? I mean... I don't really know a lot about pokemon- it's actually like awesome, how you just came in here and fixed all this shit." His was a very casual tone, apparently. "I inherited the place a couple weeks back and I mean..." His eyes softened in sadness. "I don't know anything about them. Honestly. But I can't just- ...I mean I can't abandon them."

All the anger you'd previously held about the state of affairs seemed to just vanish. Melt away into a puddle on the ground. So easily sidestepped. Poor guy. Probably had wanted nothing to do with pokemon. Yet here he was. It would have been so easy to just release all of them into the wild and say to hell with it. Yet here he was. Struggling to get things in order. "Can't you hire anyone to help?" That seemed like the next logical step.

"I tried sending a flier out but I can't really leave." No, you supposed he couldn't. Not with the way things were. Not with so many pokemon to look after. And not knowing how to look after them. He was just doing what he could. Really, you felt bad for him. He looked up to your shoulder, nodding at litwick who shied back. "You're not uh... you're not dropping that off are you?" He looked incredibly hopeful that your answer would be no.

And now you felt like it should be. How could you just leave it here knowing that it wasn't going to get looked after? That **would** be abandoning it. The thing you said constantly you weren't doing. "I was going to..." Trying to be honest with him.

His shoulders slumped. "Shit. Why? Is there something wrong with it?" Pokemon that needed a sanctuary could only have so many problems. Either they were abandoned and unable to take care of themselves, or unwilling. Or they needed a watchful eye. Or some sort of help. Some sort of _something._

You reached up, taking the little candle off your shoulder and holding it in your hands. "Her owner passed away a couple of days ago. And no one will take her in."

"Why?" Arching a brow. This must have seemed strange to him.

"They think she sucked out all her lifeforce." Because that's what litwicks _did._ Or at least that's what _some_ of them did. But that was what they had become known for.

He edged back with his hands up. "Whoa hey! I can't take care of something that's gonna kill everything!"

The litwick cowered in your hands, making a very high pitched crying noise. You held it in towards your chest. "No! She didn't do that! She would never. They were the closest friends. Beth died because she was old, not because this little thing took her life away." You held her up, stepping a little closer to him. Thankfully he didn't step back. "Look at her. You really think she could do that?" Trying to appeal to what little sense he had to have, mostly emotional. He seemed like an alright guy. Just in over his head. But nice.

Danny looked it over. Looked right into her eyes. Finally, he rendered his verdict. "I mean... I guess not... if you say so.." Like he trusted your word above all else. He might as well, hadn't you just come and saved the day? "I don't really know uh... how to take care of ... a candle. Though. What do they eat? Where do they sleep? _Do_ they sleep? I don't know shit." Though he was laughing it seemed very inappropriate. You didn't find it funny. "...why can't you take care of it?"

A very good question. Posed to the girl he thought must know everything. But you didn't. And that was the point. "I'm starting a new semester soon, at Nurse Joy's, up in Olivine. I just... won't have time." And the little litwick deserved to be looked after.

But he seemed hard pressed to process this information. "You're in school? How old are you?"

Inappropriate as it was, you side stepped it. "It's not college or anything, I'm just trying to learn everything I can." Because one day you did want to take care of pokemon. But you couldn't do that until you learned everything there was to learn. And while you did know a lot about care and maintenance and medicine involving pokemon, a one-on-one with one of the Joys would really boost your skills. You couldn't pass it up- and you'd already paid!!

His hand ruffled back through his hair again. "Look I mean... I don't think I can refuse but.. I'm really swamped. You seem like you care a lot about it- the best thing for it might be just taking it with you..." But you couldn't. You weren't allowed to bring pokemon in, or at the very least you really wouldn't have the time to take care of her. That was why you had settled on dropping her off here. The one place that people said you could. But now you were realizing this was a bust.

As Danny had said earlier, though... you couldn't just _abandon it._

"Look..." He said again for the second time, frowning at you. "I know you're going to school or whatever- but you really know what you're doing. And I .... I really fucking **don't**." Understatement of the year, if he asked you. "I know you don't know me, hell you didn't even tell me your name- this is asking a lot, I get that, but like... I really fucking need your help. I can't even offer you anything except a place to stay. And food. I guess." No. No no no. He was not- there was no way he was doing this. Imposing on a total stranger. He couldn't be. Really? Was this happening? "Can you please like... stay and help me out for a little while?" His hands came up again. "I mean I get it- if you can't. I totally get it. But like.. this place was bombing and I'm drowning- and I really want to take care of them but I don't know how. And you do. And you're here..."

He made it sound like some serendipitous occasion that you just happened to bumble out of the woods. Like you were destined to come here and fix this place up. ...run it.  
Hell.. wasn't that what you were training for?

You took a long look around. At the pokemon. Some grazing. Some asleep. Some playing. Big things. Small things. Pokemon depending on someone to take care of them. To help them. You knew in your heart if you refused, that if you left here and went up to Olivine to listen to Joy go on about spray and antidote and bandages- things you already knew- for five months... just left him and this place and all the pokemon in it behind... you'd never be able to live with yourself. They needed you. He needed you.

That was about as much of a realization as you needed. Pokedollars down the drain or not. And that class had been _expensive._

Your gaze emptied out from the field, going back to him. He was still waiting patiently for your answer. "My name's ____." Deciding that might be a good place to start. "And you owe me."

"No fucking shit." His anxious demeanor melted almost instantly into a wide, warm smile.

No fucking shit indeed.


	2. Chapter 2

Before you could really start taking care of the sanctuary, you had to know exactly every pokemon within its walls. While going around the pasture and proverbially shaking hands with all of them was a thing you _could_ do, and while it was a thing you _would_ do, eventually, you knew you had to find a list. ...if they kept one. Who really knew? But you were hoping there was some sort of accountability here. Some sort of book or- “Ah-“ Ledger. Perfect. It was old, worn, and the cover was full of coffee and water stains alike, but at least it was a good start. You found yourself lucky you hadn’t really had to go through the entire office to get it, snatching it off the top of the filing cabinet closest to the door. The room was a ridiculous mess, papers strewn everywhere, garbage can overflowing with various empty snack packets and coffee cups, and littered with clutter everywhere else. Product of old management, you assumed. Danny seemed far too busy to be sitting back here making a mess day in and day out.

Once obtaining the notebook you walked back to the main room, something akin to a check-in center. Like all the pokecenters had. It reminded you that you should call Joy at some point to tell her you weren’t going to make it. It wasn’t like she knew who you were explicitly, but she did have your name on a list. ...and your money. While you wouldn’t be getting refunded, at least you could be polite about it so she wouldn’t have to worry about your disappearance. Later, though. You told yourself you’d do it by the end of the day. For now...

You sat at the front desk, chair creaking ominously underneath your weight, as if it might give out at any moment. Then you set the ledger down, opening up to its first few pages. About as stained and messy as the rest of the place. Not much of a surprise. There were lines and asterisks and all sorts of marks through the beginning pages, all out of date. Flipping through to about midway, the dates started becoming a little more familiar- the handwriting changed. Danny, you thought. At least you had a good idea of things now. You hadn’t really needed a list to tell you that the sanctuary was full up, having witnessed the large number of pokemon when you’d first hopped over the gate, but still... seeing it all out in full was a little more than daunting.

Head in your hand, you couldn’t help heave a sigh. This was more work than you really wanted to put in. But... you couldn’t just leave him. The sooner you stopped thinking about how arduous and difficult this was going to be, the better. “I can’t get this off me...” Danny sounded somewhere between embarrassed and amused and you glanced up from the ledger to see him holding his arm out, a pretty pink Swirlix attached to his wrist. Hanging on. Tongue lolled out of the corner of its mouth.

“Here, come here-“ You reached your hands up and he moved closer. Gently you wedged it off of him. “They’re sticky, like cotton candy.” It seemed like the most obvious thing in the world but you’d quickly come to realize he knew almost, literally, nothing about pokemon. At all. Teaching him all the finer points was going to take a long, _long_ time. But at least you could start with those simple little things. “They only eat sugary things.” Another thing you had realized. He had no idea diet or etiquette when it came to feeding them. That, too, you were going to have to show him the basics of.

Leaning down on the side of the table once you placed the little puffball on top, you reached into your bag again, bringing up a plastic wrapped sweet pokepuff. “Oh my god.” Danny giggled at the sight of it. “That looks so good.”

You carefully picked the covering off before handing it out. “Don’t eat pokepuffs.” In only the driest tone you could manage, and yet his giggles were provoking a smile out of you. “Here.” Putting it down on the desk for the Swirlix to eat. “I was saving it for-“ Litwick. Not that that mattered now. She was here. You were here. No one was going anywhere. You shook the thought away.

He crossed his arms. “I wasn’t gonna.” In a completely childlike tone. Meant to be disbelieved, still grinning. “You have a lot of- uh- food, I guess.” This would be roughly the second time he’d seen you feeding his guests.

A shrug passed you by. “I tried to be prepared.” Because while you didn’t have pokemon of your own to battle with, you could lure pesky grass-goers away from you with food. That and you’d wanted to leave Litwick with a good start. _Not_ that any of that mattered now. “But, that’s a good place to start. We really need to go over dietary concerns. Visit all the pokemon one by one.” _We_. Not just you. Because while you were sure he’d seen them all, and had tried his best to do what he could with them all, he wasn’t going to learn by sitting out in the sun petting one or two of them. You had to take him around.

While you might have expected _some_ sort of grumbling about it, all he did was smile wider. “Yeah. Sure. Sounds awesome.”

“We also should start a daily board or something. So we know when they’ve been fed and attended to. That sort of thing.” You really were just going to have to straight up run this place. Even if he was there, it almost felt just by yourself. Like he was just on hand to offer very little help.

He ran a hand back through his hair. “That sounds sort of... uhm...” You looked up to catch the sight of him frowning. “Impersonal?” Maybe unsure of the word he really wanted to use. “Like for feeding and stuff, yeah. Sure. But...”

Whatever he was dancing around you sort of understood it. While he knew nothing he at least was a decent guy. That continued to be an obvious thing. “I don’t mean like- we check their names off and then don’t talk to them for the rest of the day. I just mean like so we know who got to whom.” It wouldn’t be three feedings and a pat on the head and then doing nothing with them the rest of the day. This was a sanctuary. They needed to be cared for and looked after.

His frown disappeared, and replacing it was another lopsided smile. “Oh- yeah. Cool. Good.” He just seemed so nonchalant about it all. But really... what choice did he have?

Closing the ledger you stood, eying him one more time before speaking. “So... which one is your favorite?” You figured that might be a good place to start. He had to have one, right? Even though picking a favorite out of a herd was probably not a nice thing to do, it was inevitable.

With how nice of a guy he seemed to be, you expected him to struggle. Instead he surprised you. “Oh! Ker. For sure. He’s the coolest.” The name had you tilting your head. That was no pokemon you’d ever heard of before. When he caught wind of your confusion he laughed softly. “Sorry- that’s... what I named him.. He’s a Stantler- I think?” Ah- so that one was _absolutely_ his favorite, if he’d named it.

Still, it was endearing. Even if you didn’t understand it. “Let’s go see him.” If he was the closest to Danny’s heart, he was worth knowing. He fell into step with you as the two of you headed back outside to the front of the sanctuary. He cupped his hands over his mouth and called out that nickname and you looked to the left before looking right, seeing a somewhat larger Stantler than you’d anticipated slowly trotting over on graceful legs. Bigger than they were usually known to grow, darker colored fur than usual, too. A notch on the base of its right antler. Kind eyes, though. Very sweet. And a bit on the older side. Really a wonder to behold.

It passed you right up first, going to Dan, who reached out to smooth a hand along its neck with a warm, fond smile. “Hey there, buddy.” Speaking in a soft, almost loving tone. “Some hunters tried to cut his horns off, a while back, see,” Gesturing to the marking you’d noticed on his horn. “but he’s a good guy.” His hand came down over the deer’s head and over its nose. “Hey Ker, this is our new friend, ___. She’s gonna help me take good care of you.”

Stantler, or Ker, you supposed you should get used to calling him, turned his head, eyeing you from head to toe. You almost felt frozen in your spot. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if he didn’t like you but... at the same time you really hoped he would. When he leaned away from Danny just a little you reached out a hand. He sniffed your palm a couple of times before pressing his big brown nose there, giving you permission to pet him. Which you did promptly, feeling better suddenly. “Hi there, Ker.” Trying to mimic Danny’s tone without going full in. “You’re quite the handsome buck, you know?” Smiling at him, something his eyes reflected back to you, perhaps appreciating the compliment.

“I know. Thank you. I try very hard.” Danny cut in on the moment with this sarcastic reprieve, followed by more of those giggles. Something he seemed to have an endless supply of. Not that you _really_ minded. They were nice. When Ker ribbed him lightly with a nudge of his horn he recoiled back with a grunt. “Ugh- okay! Fine! You’re the only handsome stag around!” More laughter bubbling out of him.

Deciding he’d earned just a _little_ something you looked up at him, steadying your hand on Ker’s head. “You’re not half bad looking, too.” He really wasn’t. If you were so inclined you might even find yourself saying he was very gorgeous. But you _weren’t_.

Not even when he ducked his head a little with what _seemed_ to be a faint dust of pink. “Oh- yeah? Well. Hey- thanks.” Ker seemed to have had enough of the bumbling- or perhaps of the show stealing, and nudged him again with his horn. “Oh- alright already with that!” Danny reached out to take hold of both horns, something that made you nervous almost instantly. But Ker seemed to be fine with it- a sign of absolute trust, you noted- just shuffling his head back and forth with a low rumble of noise.

“Okay boys that’s enough of that.” While you were sure they could entertain you all day, there was little time for it just yet. Maybe later when things were settled. “It was nice meeting you, Ker.” Patting him on the side gently. Another quiet swell of noise came out of him before he shook Danny off and walked away slowly, back to his spot under a tall tree where he’d been grazing before being interrupted.

Quite the scenic view before Danny spoke and broke the moment. “You’re really good, you know?” You assumed he meant with the pokemon. Which was fair enough. It was what you wanted to do with your life. Just... help them. When you looked back over at him he was smiling. But it was a different one, somehow, than all the ones you’d seen thus far. _Close_ to the one he’d been wearing when introducing Stantler but... framed differently. Maybe just because he was looking directly at you. “I’m glad you came- I’m.. really glad you’re staying.”

He’d said as much before, and even thanked you a couple hundred times, not a single one of which ever sounded disingenuous. But there was something more than just him being grateful for you being here now. Or at least that’s what it sounded like. Maybe you were reading too much into thinks. “Me too.” Despite throwing away a one-on-one with Joy, and money you’d never get back, staying behind and helping him with the sanctuary felt like more than just the right thing to do. It felt- ... well.. Shaking your head you nudged him. “Alright. Let’s get to work.”

No time for any of that now.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come hang out at the envelopesyou tumblr for more fun stuff!


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